Do Not Be Late
“Regulus.” James smiled back.
It wasn’t unusual for James to be kind to Regulus, Sirius had made it very clear to his three dorm mates the year his brother joined that they were to be nothing but kind to him, and that he’d had as difficult a time as Sirius had, if not worse since Sirius had been staying with their uncle Alphard frequently.
Peter and Regulus had interacted once or twice with Peter throwing a small smile when they had both visited the herbology classroom to check on their plants. Remus and Regulus had interacted possibly even less, with Remus just giving Regulus a nod in passing which Regulus never returned.
James however often made sure his presence was known to Regulus, which of course was ignored, not out of rudeness, Regulus simply just did not see the need to say hello to people he wasn’t friends with, James was his brother’s friend, not his.
Although the last year Regulus had been finding it significantly more difficult to ignore the older boy, James had come back from summer completely toned, with much bigger muscles, as next year he was hoping to get scouted for professional quidditch.
Regulus can respect hard work but not when it interferes with his day-to-day life. James had become distracting.
“We are not, Hagrid allowed me to have him. My mother believes animals are beneath us.” Regulus coughed quietly
“So what are you gonna do with him over holidays?” James rose an eyebrow curiously
“None of your business Potter, out of my way please I am tired and would love to be in bed right now rather than talking to you.”
“As you wish” James smirked and moved aside to let Regulus pass. “But if you needed someone to take him, I love cats!” He whisper shouted after the dark haired boy who waved him off and continued on.
Later that night Regulus lay in bed listening to Crookshanks’ purrs who was curled up next to his ear, thinking about what James had said. He of course didn’t have a plan for the holidays and now was going to have to find someone to take the kitten in time for christmas.
———————
The week droned on, Regulus and Sirius had long resolved their issue, in their own way. His lessons were introductions to the new topics each class would be covering after the christmas break, which Regulus always found highly irritating, as if they were waving candy in front of a baby just to snatch it from him and say ‘you can eat it in a month’. Christmas break was now a week away, and on the last week of term nobody ever really pays attention, so there is less serious learning and more relaxing.
Regulus left his herbology lesson to make his way to the library for his free period, which was extremely counterproductive as he spent the entire time he was meant to be studying, thinking about what he was going to do with crookshanks.
Over the month he’d grown deep care for the animal and genuinely was considering running away from home just to keep him safe, because his only other option was to ask Potter which would be severely inconvenient for Regulus, he’d do anything to avoid conversation with an attractive boy that he couldn’t have anything to do with.
By the end of the week Regulus had come up with absolutely no solutions, he went to visit Hagrid to ask if he would be able to take Crookshanks in, and Hagrid said he was visiting the giants in the hills and wouldn’t be here to do so, therefore leaving Regulus with his final, genuine last resort, James Potter.
He lay awake that night listening to the sounds of Evan’s soft breathing, debating death by jumping from the astronomy tower, he didn’t want to face the embarrassment of asking an overly kind gryffindor for a favour, it would mean he owed him one back, which he wanted to avoid at all costs.
The next morning at breakfast he couldn’t even focus on his toast, brainstorming how to get James alone without being seen by anyone that could report back to their parents - who would report to his mother.
“Regulus, eat your toast i can hear your brain ticking from across the table” Pandora said quietly, kicking him in the shin. He said nothing, quietly picking up his toast and eating slowly, staring behind her at the Gryffindor table. he wondered if Pandora could sense his distress.
James shot up from the table, snatching a piece of toast from Sirius’ plate and sending him a face splitting grin, before walking off to leave the hall.
“I’ve got a free i’m going to the library” Regulus mumbled to his group, swiftly leaving the hall to trail behind james.
“Potter” Regulus snapped in a hushed tone, the taller boy turned around swiftly to face Regulus.
“Ah to what do i owe the pleasure black number two?” James smiled sincerely.
“Please stop with the false niceties, we spoke before.. about my kitten, he needs somewhere to go for christmas and i was hoping-‘
“YES” James blurted out before he even finished.
“You don’t even know what i was going to say” Regulus huffed, displeased.
“You were going to ask if i could take him right?” James grinned.
“Yes but-“
“So then my answer is yes i’ll take him”
“Okay..” Regulus said suspiciously, “meet me behind the greenhouse on friday just before we leave for the train, and do not be late or i will kill you.”
“Yes sir!” James jokingly saluted with his piece of toast as Regulus spun on his heel to head back towards the library. His christmas was going to be awful.